Holmes fought like a man possessed that night lol he had one last great performance in him. I think mercer was just so surprised at holmes spirited effort. I think he kept waiting for holmes to let up but he didnt the whole 12 rounds.
Holmes had lost his legs but was able to neutralise Mercer who gassed very quickly. Ray was in much better shape vs Damiani but was outboxed from range & outworked on the inside. Damiani definately landed a lot more damaging blows than Holmes did & on a more active Mercer. Damiani was a good boxer, steady & well organised he had a very good amatuer career. I saw him at a WSB match in November & had a little chat, he's a really nice guy. This content is protected
I would have liked to have seen Damiani vs. Holmes instead of Holmes vs. Mercer. I think Damiani would have been a tougher fight.
Jesse Ferguson, as well proving to have an edge over Ray Mercer head-to-head, also gave old Larry Holmes a tougher fight than Ray Mercer did.
Haha Wlads little smile and Wepner just looks like he has no idea what the **** is happening , which fight is this form >?
Mercer gets more than enough respect. A brilliant chin and very respectable power is enough to get you very highly rated in any era of the Heavyweights. After he lost his '0', Mercer cornered the market in putting together brave defeats and shockingly inept performances over journeyman. As an unbeaten fighter, Mercer made the most of his two assets as shown against 'The Duke', but that still meant almost blowing a fight with Damiani and having to struggle to beat Smokin' Bert. It also meant he was totally befuddled by a Holmes in his early 40s, without win over a world class fighter for seven years.
This basically. He will be immortalised by his slugfest with Cooper, how he came back to destroy the Duke and how close he came to dethroning Lewis.
But then you'd have to post James Toney getting embarrased by Randy Couture the following year. Or even Ray Mercer getting choked out by a glorified street fighter.
Thanks to JohnnyNawiedzony who uploaded these fights to youtube This is the allegedly 'out-of-shape unfocussed' Mercer losing to Ferguson : [yt]wkJZkwGNK94[/yt] This is the in-shape motivated Mercer out for revenge (personally I can't see much difference, he still struggles with Jesse, imo) : [yt]SEBBJAc_qB8[/yt] This is a decidely out-of-shape Mercer v Wilson : [yt]_wMkYbTtZnw[/yt] All three are good entertaining fights. :good Mercer certainly deserves respect. He was a tough tough guy. As were Wilson and Ferguson, who actually probably get far less respect than they deserve.
If Mercer would have has a better work ethic he would have one the top 5 heavys of his era. Unfortunately Ray was lazy and unmotivated. His fights with Cooper, Morrison, Lewis and Holyfield were awesome. His fights with Holmes and Ferguson (whom he did not match up with well) were pathetic. He shamed himself and the sport of boxing when he quit 24 seconds into a fight with a K-2 fighter and then by losing to Kimbo Slice. He redeemed himself with the 9 second KO of the MMA dumbass, Tim Sylvia. Ray was a tough guy, with some success but could have been so much more.
As an all-round fighter- even by heavy standards where chin and power can mean more when allied to a bland one-two, or simple hooking style- he was dire.
